Stop the bleeding now!

Number of years ago I was asked to help find a lost archery hunter.
He was a local kid with a lot of experience. We all looked for a couple days. When I found him he was dead. Bled to death. He was side hilling and slipped down and set on his broad head, side ways. Only made it 200 yards down the mountain. Found some of his gear first. Dog found the rest.

Nope, just one more piece of marketing for either the paranoid, or hemophiliac, or perhaps our current or former military members who just don't like venturing off without a piece of equipment that has been engrained as a "nesicity" in their line of work.
I guess if the Deer, Elk, or cows were shooting back at me I'd have a different view.
I grew up chasin cows. Leaving for 1-3 days at a time on a horse. Prepared meant making sure you had your bedroll wrapped up in your slicker, & had some coffee in your saddle bags.
I hunt the same country I always have, & the country I grew up & played in.
My day pack weighs ounces not pounds. (Unless I'm carying water). See the pic in my signature, & youll see why i count ounces, & absolute BARE nesicesities. Tried the whole "paranoid boyscout day pack", prepared for anything at all times, & just got sick & tired of packing useless weight around for nothing. Actually, the only use I ever got out of it was that an over stuffed pack makes a nicer shooting rest. But I have bi pods for that.
Not trying to be gruff, nor knock your personal approach to your personal hunting style. We apparently just have radically different ideas of preparedness I guess. I'm used to doctoring myself with whatever I can come up with. We've experienced everything from DIY stitches, resetting broken bones, dealing with concussions, & severe sprains etc. & even getting people with heartattack/disecting Aorta to an ambulance & life flight. Always been able to react pretty easily to whatever was thrown our way using only our heads, & what we had with us, weather working or playing. Never once had any need for a tourniquet.

I'am pretty much with winmag on this. Have been living on a remote ranch for 10 years and have spent most of my adult life in the mountains hunting and packing horseback and have witnessed some pretty rough stuff but it gets handled. What I have noticed especially the last twenty years is guys get caught up in "stuff". For instance I ran into a fella that was backpack hunting in the HCNRA and we got chatting and I asked what his pack weighed. 58 lbs was his response. Crap when I used to back pack hunt 28 lbs was heavy and that included half gallon of water.

Sh**t happens no denying that but I think what makes people safe in the outback is just good common sense and of course experience. To each his own and if a fella wants to hunt with a 58lb pack on have at it.

I carry a nylon cord in the back pack to hang boned out meat so I guess I have a way to stop the bleeding.

__________________

Jim

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. Sir Winston Churchill.

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Einstein

I don't run around no mountain tops or even ride a horse for that matter.... but I spend more time buried deep in a swamp or coastal marsh than I do at home. Can't imagine surviving could be much different one way or the other. Been in many a pinch, you just gotta figure a way out of it.

When it's my time to go... it's my time to go, whether it's runnin crawfish traps or huntin ducks in the middle of the Atchafalaya Basin, hunting deer in the open prarie marshes of St. Mary Parish, or walking to my mailbox to check my mail.... I'll be ready for it.

I'am pretty much with winmag on this. Have been living on a remote ranch for 10 years and have spent most of my adult life in the mountains hunting and packing horseback and have witnessed some pretty rough stuff but it gets handled. What I have noticed especially the last twenty years is guys get caught up in "stuff". For instance I ran into a fella that was backpack hunting in the HCNRA and we got chatting and I asked what his pack weighed. 58 lbs was his response. Crap when I used to back pack hunt 28 lbs was heavy and that included half gallon of water.

Sh**t happens no denying that but I think what makes people safe in the outback is just good common sense and of course experience. To each his own and if a fella wants to hunt with a 58lb pack on have at it.

I carry a nylon cord in the back pack to hang boned out meat so I guess I have a way to stop the bleeding.

HIGH 5!! To you and winmag both. Ive never had the opportunity to pack in elk hunt nor do some things you western guys have...BUT I have seen far too many guys go "into the field" humping EXCESSIVE amounts of JUNK...that chances are they woudnt use 1 in 20,000 times.